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The Silver Seraph was the first new Rolls-Royce car in many years when it debuted, but it had a very short life. Photo by Autoweek

Before the Phantom: Silver Seraph's short time on stage

BMW V12-engined Arnage twin didn't quite set the tone for 21st century Rolls-Royce

August 3, 2017

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With the debut of the new Rolls-Royce Phantom replacing a similarly gothic model that had dominated the company's lineup, it's easy to forget what came before it. And that's almost understandable, as the Phantom's predecessor was produced for an amazingly short period of time, especially for an automaker famous for long product cycles. That model, of course, was the Silver Seraph, a sibling of the more popular Bentley Arnage and a product of a very different Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

For a younger generation that has grown up with the Phantom, it's perhaps difficult to imagine a time when Rolls-Royce and Bentley were one company with a lineup of mostly badge-engineered models. The Seraph was a product of a such a time, a time when an aviation and shipbuilding company called Vickers controlled both marques and was in perpetually dire financial straits, debuting the Seraph and its Arnage twin after a few delays and increasingly unconvincing facelifts of existing models.

The Silver Seraph debuted in 1998, replacing a bewildering array of barely different Rolls-Royce models that originated from a common Silver Spirit ancestor in 1980. The company had started work on this shared model all the way back in the late 1980s but had been stymied by a series of world financial crises and serious competition from sedans fielded by Team Germany. The Silver Seraph actually went into design lock all the way back in 1994, four years before its debut at the 1998 Geneva Motor Show, but engineering development went on for quite a while longer -- until 1997.

The Seraph was powered by a 5.4-liter BMW V12, unlike the more sprightly Arnage. Photo by Autoweek

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Powered by a 5.4-liter BMW V12 connected to a five-speed automatic transmission, the Seraph was less concerned with performance than the Arnage, which was powered by a Bentley-engineered V8 engine. Inside and out, the two cars were very similar, with nearly identical body panels and a closely related interior. But one of the more noticeable mechanical differences, aside from the drivetrain, was the placement of the gear selector: The Arnage had a console-mounted shifter, while the Seraph had its shifter on the steering column.

By today's standards, the Seraph was not that roomy, with the Park Ward model that debuted in 2001 adding a total of 10 inches to the front and rear doors. But the standard model, with its high-positioned seats, was a close competitor in size to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class of the day. Its exterior design cleaned up the boxy excess of its predecessor, but a very generous rear overhang and a relatively compact greenhouse had visually shrunk the car. For some common perspective, the Seraph was actually shorter than the 1991-generation Chevrolet Caprice with a length of 212.2 inches compared to the Caprice's 217.3. And it's safe to say that, aside from the grille, the Seraph influenced the design of the Phantom in almost no manner whatsoever.

The interior differed little from its Arnage twin -- same for the exterior. Photo by Rolls-Royce

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What became of the Seraph? Very little, in many ways. Just 1,570 Seraphs were produced from 1998 till 2002, with BMW furiously working on its replacement pretty much the whole time (with Chris Bangle playing an oversight role in the design) after having purchased Rolls-Royce from Vickers in 1998. Bentley went its own way with the Arnage, keeping the model alive until 2009, but BMW was burdened with the much less popular Seraph.

Rolls-Royce officially regards the Seraph as a low point in the history of the company, pointing to low reliability and the old age of the original design. Indeed, the Seraph was a product of Vickers' continued troubles and a long-delayed compromise that differed little from the Arnage, finding its biggest group of buyers in the U.K. itself with the kinds of customers who bought a new Rolls-Royce once a decade for daily chauffeured trips into central London. Even with that demographic, the Seraph was no match for the BMW 7-Series and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which offered a much more modern experience at a fourth of the cost. Pricing for the Seraph that started at $220,000 in 1998 dollars steered a lot of prospective buyers to the W220-generation S-Class, which debuted in 1999.

Rear-seat accommodations were not snug, per se, but short-wheelbase models were very different cars from their successor. Photo by Rolls-Royce

The legacy of the Seraph is ultimately one of the compromises of a placeholder model that was effectively the last of the line, prior to the long-overdue split of Rolls-Royce and Bentley. An older car underneath than all of its competitors, the Seraph combined a handmade interior with some unreliable electrics and an understated design. The Seraphs have not fared well in the last two decades, prone to developing various mechanical and trim issues and suffering from wince-inducing depreciation while requiring expensive replacement parts. A tiny production run and the market's disdain for early Arnages and Seraphs have driven transaction prices for a lot of examples south of $40,000, with plenty of running cars available well below that mark.

And yet, the handmade Seraph retains a certain Old World charm along with its understated looks and official state limousine presence. Can the same be said of the 2003-generation Phantom or its evolutionary 2018 successor, a juggernaut intended to be readily identifiable from a great distance? In an era of the SUV-size Phantom, the Seraph almost gets lost in traffic, hiding well due to its relatively compact profile and rounded 1990s design. Absolutely dwarfed by the Phantom, remaining examples of the Seraph still communicate "old money" credibility with their muted looks.

But this doesn't change the fact that the Seraph's legacy has been reduced almost to a footnote in a time of transition for the marque.

The Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph remains a rare sight in the U.S. or overseas. Photo by Autoweek